Fracking boom drying up before expected?

Data: Shale deposits might hit peak production soon

3:26 AM,
Nov. 5, 2013

Written by

Wendy Koch
USA Today

Surging oil and gas production is nudging the nation closer to energy independence. But new research suggests the boom could peter out long before the U.S. reaches the decades-old goal.

Many wells behind the energy gush are quickly losing productivity, and some areas could hit peak levels sooner than the U.S. government expects, according to analyses presented last week at a Geological Society of America meeting in Denver.

"It's a temporary bonanza," said J. David Hughes, an energy expert at the Post Carbon Institute, a research group focused on sustainability. He studied two of the ...